Startup gives local nonprofits platform to connect

STOCKTON - Entrepreneur Alex Harris has had it with hearing people bad-mouth Stockton, the city where he was born and raised and still spends plenty of time.

Scott Smith

STOCKTON - Entrepreneur Alex Harris has had it with hearing people bad-mouth Stockton, the city where he was born and raised and still spends plenty of time.

Not long after the 27-year-old MBA with a law degree joined a Silicon Valley startup called LoYakk, he convinced his colleagues to lend their expertise to his struggling hometown.

"People have a terrible perception of Stockton," said Harris, LoYakk's marketing director, who divides his time between his hometown and San Mateo. "I don't know why."

Harris sees Stockton as fertile soil for LoYakk's foray into the world of nonprofit charities.

The app you download onto your smartphone or computer - think Facebook and Twitter - links you up in an instant with local groups, such as a school, college, neighborhood, sporting event or activity group.

Open the app, and a list of all the social groups and activities nearby pops onto your screen. LoYakk seeks to fill a gap that Facebook and Twitter missed.

The emphasis is on local. LoYakk is an abbreviated handle for "locals yakking" or "location-based yakking."

While it has potential for all kinds of uses, Harris is offering up LoYakk free of charge to hundreds of Stockton nonprofits. The goal is putting them in touch with each other to better serve Stockton.

So far, nobody's been able to do that in the bankrupt and crime-ridden town where new charities are constantly sprouting up as people look for ways to help Stockton bust through its gloom.

"Stockton is a unique community with a large amount of need," Harris said. "We have so many nonprofits because people want to get involved."

Harris on Friday brought LoYakk's management team to Stockton for a third time to present the social platform to a small group of nonprofit leaders with the aim of gaining buy-in.

Linda Philipp, CEO and president of Community Foundation of San Joaquin, downloaded the LoYakk app during Harris' presentation and instantly saw a use.

"It's the answer to our prayers," she said.

Despite repeated false starts, Philipp said, nobody here has created or sustained a community calendar of events. LoYakk may help her and CEOs of charities around Stockton finally accomplish that.

She envisioned future meetings back at her charity, trying to set a date for their next big event but fearing a conflict.

LoYakk will allow her to see a calendar shared and maintained by the area nonprofit organizations across town and avoid scheduling something the same night as another group.

"It's going to give us the ability to connect in real time and efficiently," Philipp said. "It's going to be a game-changer for us."

Its potential uses go far beyond calendar setting.

Harris explained that in addition to allowing nonprofits to communicate with each other, it will also allow individual charities to interact with clients, members and volunteers.

People will be able to make donations to their charity or help in any number of ways as needs arise.

A Texas animal protection group has used LoYakk, and Puentes, a group on Boggs Tract in Stockton that grows vegetables, has created a fledgling channel to promote its activities.

Developed in 2011, the LoYakk team is working to make it take off and become the next Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin. It's also targeting property and community managers.

Andy Prokop, president and CEO of United Way of San Joaquin, said he's heard Harris' presentation on LoYakk, and he's a believer. Prokop noted that a core of about 150 notable charities operate in Stockton with United Way support.

And the local United Way sends out a total of more than 2,000 checks each year to a longer list of charities, Prokop said, adding that they all need the help keeping in touch to prevent overlap and waste.

That's no easy task, he said.

"LoYakk's intent and purpose is to get us on the same page," Prokop said. "That's what I think they're trying to do. I've had different concepts brought to me, but nothing better."